hende means "to happen, occur." It is a close partner of skje, but with a characteristic tilt: hende leans toward things that happen to someone and toward the idea of "every so often / on occasion." Its single most useful pattern is the impersonal det hender — the everyday Norwegian way to say "sometimes I…" without using a word for "sometimes" at all. Master that construction and you sound markedly more native.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 2 (-te / -t). The stem hend- ends in a consonant cluster, taking -te in the preterite and -t in the supine. Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å hende | to happen |
| Presens | hender | happens, is happening |
| Preteritum | hendte | happened |
| Perfektum | har hendt | has happened |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde hendt | had happened |
| Futurum | skal/vil hende | will happen |
| Imperativ | (hend!) | happen! (effectively never used) |
| Presens partisipp | hendende | happening (rare) |
det hender — "it happens / sometimes"
This is the headline construction. Det hender at … literally reads "it happens that …," and it is the natural, idiomatic way to express "sometimes" or "every so often." Norwegian routinely packs the adverb "sometimes" into this verb phrase rather than using noen ganger.
Det hender at jeg glemmer hvor jeg har parkert.
Sometimes I forget where I've parked.
Det hender. Ikke tenk mer på det.
It happens. Don't think any more about it.
Det hender jeg tar meg en lur etter jobb.
Now and then I take a nap after work.
Notice that in the last example the at is dropped — common in speech. Det hender (at) + clause is the frame; the at is optional but never wrong.
happen to someone — hende + dative-style object
hende readily takes an indirect "to whom" expressed with a plain object or with med. Hva har hendt deg? ("What's happened to you?") uses the bare object; you'll also hear Hva har hendt med deg? The flavour is "befall" — something that happens to a person.
Hva er det som har hendt deg? Du ser opprørt ut.
What's happened to you? You look upset.
Det verste som kunne hende, hendte.
The worst thing that could happen, happened.
Det hadde aldri hendt henne noe lignende før.
Nothing like it had ever happened to her before.
en hendelse — the noun
The related noun en hendelse means "an event, an incident, an occurrence." It is the standard word in news and reports for a discrete happening, often a negative or notable one (en alvorlig hendelse = "a serious incident").
Politiet etterforsker hendelsen fra i går kveld.
The police are investigating the incident from last night.
hende vs skje — the key contrast
Both translate "happen," and in many sentences they are interchangeable. The difference is one of tilt, not hard rule:
- skje is the neutral, all-purpose verb for "happen, occur, take place." If in doubt, skje is safe. Hva skjer? = "What's up? / What's happening?"
- hende carries a faint extra sense of "occasionally" and of "happening to someone." It is the one you want inside det hender at … ("sometimes"). For a one-off, definite event you'd more often reach for skje.
Hva skjer i kveld?
What's happening tonight? (plans, events)
Det hender at ingenting skjer en hel uke.
It happens that nothing occurs for a whole week.
That second sentence shows the division of labour cleanly: det hender frames the recurring "sometimes," while skje names the concrete (non-)event.
Common Mistakes
❌ Det hendet en ulykke i går.
Incorrect — the preterite is hendte, not hendet
✅ Det hendte en ulykke i går.
An accident happened yesterday.
❌ Det har hendte mye siden sist.
Incorrect — hendte is the preterite; after har use the supine hendt
✅ Det har hendt mye siden sist.
A lot has happened since last time.
❌ Noen ganger jeg glemmer navn.
Awkward — Norwegian prefers 'det hender at jeg…' for habitual 'sometimes'
✅ Det hender at jeg glemmer navn.
Sometimes I forget names.
❌ Hva hender deg?
Incorrect register/tense — for 'what's happened to you' use the perfect
✅ Hva har hendt deg?
What's happened to you?
Key Takeaways
- hende / hender / hendte / har hendt — weak Class 2, "to happen, occur."
- Star construction: det hender at … = the idiomatic Norwegian "sometimes / now and then."
- It leans toward things that happen to someone: Hva har hendt deg?
- The noun is en hendelse ("an event, incident").
- Against skje: skje is the neutral default; hende adds a tinge of "occasionally / befall."
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Weak Verbs: The Four ClassesA2 — A map of the four regular Norwegian past-tense classes (-et/-a, -te, -de, -dde) — how to predict a verb's class from its stem and how the supine differs from the preterite.
- Verb Reference: How to Use These TablesA2 — How to read the Norwegian verb-reference pages — the five principal parts, weak vs strong classes, and the supine (the har-form).
- skje (to happen)A2 — Full conjugation of the weak verb skje (skje / skjer / skjedde / har skjedd), the everyday det skjer ('it happens'), the tricky skj-sound, the homonym en skje ('a spoon'), and how skje differs from hende.
- gjelde (to apply/concern)B1 — Full conjugation of gjelde (gjelde / gjelder / gjaldt / har gjeldt), the mostly impersonal det gjelder ('it concerns / it's about'), the phrase når det gjelder, and the senses 'be valid' and 'apply to'.